


Who said Home Ec is Boring?

by notanannoyingfangirl



Category: The 100 (TV), The 100 Series - Kass Morgan
Genre: F/M, Fake Baby AU, home economics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-07-25 11:34:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7531147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notanannoyingfangirl/pseuds/notanannoyingfangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clarke Griffin hates her Home Ec class with the most boring teacher ever, something which is made even worse when the kids are forced to take care of fake babies for fifty percent of their semester grade. It wouldn't be so bad if she got to work with one of her friends, like Raven, but somehow she ended up stuck with Bellamy Blake.</p>
<p>Bellamy is thrilled with their new Home Ec project, no seriously. The teacher paired him up with Clarke Griffin, the girl he'd had a crush on since the first time they met... even if she wasn't very nice to him. Now he has the whole project to try and win her over (not to mention Octavia's meddling).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Who said Home Ec is Boring?

If Clarke was being honest, her home economics class kind of sucked. It was really an easy class, so a lot of students took it to get the free credit. Any credit she earned was one step closer to getting her out of this hell of a high school, so Clarke couldn't complain  _ too  _ much. But because it was an easy class it was a mashup of juniors (like herself) who just needed a break from the rest of their busy schedule, and seniors who apparently didn't have anything better to do. 

 

Despite being an 'easy' class, it was hopelessly boring most days. They spent a majority of the time learning useless skills like embroidery and baking (though the baking days sucked significantly less than the embroidery days). 

 

Their teacher, an elderly lady named Mrs. Walden, seemed to delight in making the class as boring as she could, and today was no exception.

 

"As you may know," she was saying from her place by her podium, "unlike most teachers I don't give a midterm. Instead I assign students a project, and I must remind you to work hard on it as it counts for fifty percent of your semester grade." 

 

The class groaned as a collective, midterm tests were bad enough. A project that would likely span a week at least was sure to be torture. 

 

Unaware, or simply immune, to the complaining of her students, Mrs. Walden continued, "this project is a partner project where you and your partner will be responsible for taking care of a baby. You should know that it isn't a real baby, but it will have needs that you must attend to like any real child. In addition to taking care of the baby, you and your partner must write a financial plan for taking care of your child with your earnings from your chosen career. Parenthood isn't for the weak of heart, but I hope you will learn a valuable lesson from this project."

 

Mrs. Walden hadn't even finished talking before Clarke was making faces at her friend Raven, who was sitting across the room. 

 

Raven had become her best friend after the 'Finn Fiasco' of Freshman year. Clarke had started dating Finn, who had moved to Ark High School half way through the school year, unaware that he had already had a girlfriend at his old school. She met Raven a few months later when Raven surprised her boyfriend by coming to the end of school dance - Raven obviously hadnt know that Finn had already asked Clarke to be his date. That was fun. But Raven ended up becoming a really good friend of hers that night, as they both bonded over what an ass Finn was, and she ended up transferring to Ark at the start of the next year. 

 

Normally Mrs. Walden tried to partner them up as one guy and one girl, but home economics wasn't exactly a class that a lot of guys took so girls usually had to partner up together. Besides, it was the twenty-first century, was Mrs. Walden going to say that two females couldn't raise a child together? Not likely. 

 

"I already have your partners picked out," Mrs. Walden said as she drew out a piece of paper, making the whole class grown again. They were seventeen and eighteen year olds, but most of their teachers treated them like they were children. 

 

Clarke closed her eyes, preparing to zone out until Mrs. Walden got closer to her last name on the list, but Clarke had barely closed her eyes before she heard her name. 

 

"Bellamy Blake and Clarke Griffin."

 

Damn, if she couldn't have Raven, Clarke had at least been hoping for Lexa, the cute senior who sat a row in front of her and three seats over.

 

Clarke turned around in her seat to catch Bellamy's eye. She didn't really know the senior that well, other than by reputation. He was pretty popular, but other than his being a known ladies man, the only thing Clarke really knew about him was that he was overprotective about his younger sister. Everyone knew that. Octavia Blake was a freshman this year, and by the end of the first week of school Bellamy had successfully warned every guy in Ark High that she was off limits. It was even rumored that he had duct-taped one kid to a tree after the kid had kissed Octavia.

 

Bellamy raised an eyebrow, gesturing to the now empty seat next to him. Clarke gathered up her book and purse before making her way over to the seat. It must have been Bellamy's lackey John Murphy's, as the other boy was currently standing - or rather leaning on - some girl's desk as he leered at her. Clarke was suddenly grateful that she was Bellamy's partner and not Murphy's. Murphy had hated her even since she had pushed him off the top of the slide in sixth grade and he had broken his arm. To be fair, he had been making fun of her, so in Clarke's eyes he had deserved it. 

 

"Princess," Bellamy greeted, making her roll her eyes. He always used that ridiculous nickname during the few occasions they had spoken. It had bothered her at first, but now it just reminded her how immature he really was. 

 

"Blake," she responded curtly, before focusing on the front of the room. This was going to be a fun assignment. 

 

\--

 

By the time Mrs. Walden had finished partnering everyone up and actually got around to handing out the baby dolls they were going to be 'taking care of', Bellamy was frustrated. Clarke wouldn't even look at him. They couldn't exactly do the project if she wouldn't talk to him. Though, Bellamy supposed he could have been nicer when she had first come over. 

 

He was also a tiny bit excited.

 

He had kind of had a crush on Clarke Griffin from the very first time he had tried to talk to her and she had smiled sweetly at him and told him to go fuck himself. He was a goner. 

 

Murphy liked to make fun of him for it, and Octavia teased him constantly, but whatever. Maybe this project would give him a chance to show her that he wasn't  _ always  _ as much of an ass as he could seem. 

 

"So," he said lazily, as he propped his feet up in his desk, "what should we name her?"

 

Clarke looked up from the baby doll she was holding as if it were a bomb, eyes wide with confusion, "name her?" she asked, obviously not understanding what he was talking about.

 

"Yeah," Bellamy said, waving at the baby doll, "our kid. What should we name her?" 

 

Clarke chuckled then, "it's just a project, Bellamy. I don't think we have to get  _ that  _ detailed."

 

Bellamy shrugged, "we have to write a paper in this project anyway, we need to know each other's career and budgets and whatever. I just think our kid should have a name."

 

Bellamy could feel a blush creeping over his face as he spoke. He really liked the sound of 'our kid' though he figured it would probably freak Clarke out if she knew what he was thinking. 

 

Clarke had a small grin twitching on her lips, as if she was fighting a smile, "okay," she agreed, "we can name her."

 

"So what do you want to name her?" Bellamy asked, "I heard the mother always gets to choose."

 

Clarke was silent, studying the baby doll for a few seconds before speaking, "what about Andromeda?" she asked. 

 

"Didn't have you pegged for a history nerd, Princess," Bellamy said with a grin. Then he wrinkled his nose, "Andromeda Blake," he said slowly, "I suppose there are worse names."

 

"How come she gets your last name?" Clarke demanded.

 

"We're married and have a kid," Bellamy said with a laugh, "you should have my last name too." 

 

"Clarke Blake," Clarke said aloud, "no way. I'm keeping my last name." 

 

"You could hyphenate it," Bellamy suggested, unsure as to why they were even having this conversation at all.

 

"Clarke Griffin-Blake," she said thoughtfully, "I can live with that." 

 

Hearing Clarke say her name with his last name was enough to set Bellamy's heart pounding. He  _ really  _ liked the sound of Clarke Griffin-Blake. 

 

The baby doll starting to cry interrupted them before they could say anything else, and Bellamy found himself grateful for the distraction.

 

\-- 

 

They had worked out a schedule, since it was a partner project they would take turns taking care of the baby doll. Clarke would have her during the day and at the end of the school day she would give the doll to Bellamy. Then they would alternate every other weekend. It was a good plan. 

 

They had also agreed that it was probably best if they met after school once a week to work on the paper. They had a month to finish it, but they would have other projects in class and not always be able to work together. 

 

But by the end of class, Clarke was ready to thrust the baby doll at Bellamy and run far,  _ far  _ away. It had started crying three times during class (the whole classroom was filled with wailing baby dolls). She couldn't believe she had to do this for a month. 

 

Really, Clarke was just lucky that she had already had her midterms in all her other classes so that school work was dying down. She could  _ not  _ have handled dealing with this... thing at the same time she was cramming for her midterms. 

 

If Clarke thought she was frustrated by the end of Mrs. Walden's class, then she was seriously outraged by the end of the day.

 

She couldn't get the damn doll to stop crying, no matter what she did. She tried to 'feed' it, change it, hell she even tried to rock it to sleep. Nothing worked.

 

"It's your turn with this demon," she said when she caught up to Bellamy outside of the school. For once the doll was mercifully not crying, and Bellamy looked amused at her frazzled expression.

 

"Don't call our child a demon," he scolded, as he rocked the baby doll gently in his arms.

 

Clarke just shook her head, "you'll see," she muttered. Followed by an "I need a nap."

 

Bellamy laughed at her, "okay, Princess, go have some precious beauty sleep."

 

Clarke nodded gratefully and left the school grounds before he could change his mind about that demon doll.

 

She didn't get very far before she was stopped by Raven.

 

"Oh my god, Clarke," Raven moaned, "I'm going to kill Mrs. Walden."

 

"Literally same," Clarke agreed, "that damn doll was driving me crazy all day."

 

"No, I could care less about the doll," Raven said, "she paired me with Wick."

 

Clarke burst out laughing, Kyle Wick was a senior who had a huge crush on Raven. The two had more in common than Raven liked to admit, and were in all the advanced math classes together.

 

"Stop it," Raven said, shoving her best friend lightly, "you know how he is." 

 

"I know," Clarke said, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, "he must be loving that."

 

Raven glared at her, "for the last time, he does  _ not  _ like me."

 

"Okay," Clarke surrendered. 

 

\--

 

Clarke was laughing at him. To be fair, Bellamy probably looked ridiculous. He had gotten almost no sleep the night before because the stupid thing - no, Andromeda - simply wouldn't stop crying.

 

"I think we need to work out a new deal," Bellamy said as soon as Clarke finished laughing at him. 

 

"I told you that thing was a demon," Clarke said. 

 

"Yeah, yeah, well I got no sleep last night so I hope you're happy now," Bellamy said, glaring at the baby doll in his hands. 

 

"We need a new plan," Clarke agreed. 

 

\--

 

Neither of them could come up with a new plan. 

 

Well, Clarke had a new plan but she didn't share it because it was kind of a weird idea. Instead, Bellamy said that she should come over after school so that they could work on their paper and maybe figure out what to do with the baby (apparently duct tape on its mouth didn't work to keep it quite, Clarke tried not to question just  _ how  _ Bellamy knew that). 

 

By the time the lunch rolled around, Clarke was wishing that the duct tape over the mouth  _ had  _ worked. She knew that all of the teachers (even Mrs. Walden) hated this project since most classrooms were now filled with wailing. 

 

A part of Clarke wondered if she could take out the batteries or if Mrs. Walden would be able to tell. Clarke didn't dare try. 

 

She did, however, ask Bellamy's opinion on it when she caught up with him right before home economics class.

 

"Do you think we'll fail if we take the batteries out?" she asked, wrinkling her nose.

 

Bellamy chewed his lip (and Clarke was thinking about how much she wanted to use her lips to make him stop chewing on his and... stop. Those thoughts were leading to dangerous territory, besides she didn't even  _ like  _ Bellamy Blake), "Probably," he said at last. "We just have to suffer through it."

 

\--

 

Bellamy had offered to drive Clarke over to his house, since she apparently usually rode the bus. Why on earth a girl who had her license and her own car ( _ what?  _ It was a nice car, that was the only reason he noticed) chose to ride the bus, Bellamy would never know. The high school buses were basically hell on earth, fifty or so kids crammed into one vehicle was  _ not  _ Bellamy's idea of fun. Of course, since Bellamy drove Octavia home as well, this would provide his sister an opportunity to meet the girl that Bellamy had a huge crush on and tell every embarrassing story she can think of... which Bellamy was not looking forward to. 

 

"Be nice," Bellamy whispered into his sister's ear as they walked toward Clarke's locker.

 

Octavia gave him  _ the look,  _ "I'm always nice."  

 

Bellamy rolled his eyes, but by then they were too close to Clarke for him to actually respond. "Hey, Clarke," he said instead.

 

Clarke turned to look at him, slamming her locker shut as she did. She had a backpack slung over one shoulder, and the baby doll (Andromeda was a mouthful and Bellamy would definitely deny that he had taken to calling the damn thing Annie… even though he totally had) tucked under one arm. Her blonde hair fell in soft waves around her face, and she looked even more beautiful than she had earlier in class, if that were even possible.

 

"Um, this is my sister," Bellamy said quickly, trying not to trip over his tongue, which suddenly felt like it couldn't move.

 

"Octavia," O said, tossing her hair over one shoulder, as she offered a hand for Clarke to shake.

 

"I know," Clarke said with a little grin, "I'm Clarke."

 

"I know," Octavia replied with a smirk, and Bellamy felt a blush creep across his face. 

 

"Are you ready to go?" Bellamy asked Clarke, ignoring his sister. 

 

"Yep," Clarke said, falling into step next to him as the walked toward his car in the parking lot. Bellamy could practically feel Octavia's eyes burning holes in the back of his head as she walked behind them. However, she didn't seem to mind Clarke's presence too much, simply dropping into the backseat of Bell's car. 

 

The car was a silver, slightly rusty, old piece of junk, but Bellamy could afford it and it still drove, so he couldn't complain  _ too  _ much. 

 

The ride to Bellamy's house was kind of awkward at first, it was obvious neither of them knew what to talk about, but Octavia leaned forward from the backseat and started chattering about her day, a distraction Bellamy was grateful for. 

 

By the time they actually reached the little house that Bellamy and Octavia called home, Clarke and his sister were chatting away like they were old friends... which Bellamy found a little weird, but Octavia had given her approval so Bellamy would take it. 

 

"Sorry about the mess," Bellamy found himself apologizing as he pushed open the door into the house, even though he had spent the better part of yesterday cleaning so that the house was much nicer than it usually was. 

 

"It's okay," Clarke said, a smile playing at the corner of her mouth, "you have a nice house."

 

Bellamy raised an eyebrow, he wouldn't exactly call his house  _ nice _ . It was tiny and lived it, two bedrooms, one bathroom (yes, it sucked to have to share a bathroom with his sister), and a living room and kitchen that were practically the same room.

 

Clarke must have noticed the look of disbelief on his face because she grinned and then added, "it looks like someone actually lives here, my house is all white and cold. Sometimes it feels more like the hospital mom works at than an actual house."

 

"Oh," Bellamy said stupidly, because he wasn't really sure how to respond to that. He knew that she came from money, but he hadn't realized that she was rich enough to have a house that's so pristine it doesn't feel like a house. He had only been to one house like that before, one of Octavia's friends when she was little. It had been one of the weirdest experiences in Bellamy's life. 

 

Clarke didn't say anything else, instead she practically tossed herself into the couch, looking  _ very  _ at home. 

 

Bellamy glanced around, looking for O, but it appeared she had already vanished into her room. Tossing his own backpack on the kitchen counter, Bellamy joined Clarke on the couch. She had a stack of notes spread across the coffee table, and Bellamy knew without looking that they were about the writing part of the project. Hopefully coming up with a financial plan would be easier than actually taking care of Annie. 

 

Speaking of, where had that baby doll gone to?

 

"Where's Annie?" Bellamy asked, before blushing bright red (though he hoped that Clarke wouldn't notice), as he realized that he had just called a baby doll by a  _ nickname _ .

 

"Aw," Clarke cooed, though her voice was obviously teasing. "you gave her a nickname?" 

 

"Shut up," Bellamy said without any real heat.

 

"She's with Aunt Octavia," Clarke finally answered his original question, "I figured we could both use a break."

 

Bellamy felt the red blush brighten even more when she talked about his sister like Octavia was actually an aunt. It was getting really hard to remember that this was just a dumb project for school. 

 

\--

 

"What do you  _ mean  _ you want to get her a pony?!?" Bellamy asked, as if that was the craziest thing he had ever heard.

 

"What?" Clarke asked stubbornly, "she's a little girl. All little girl's want ponies." 

 

Bellamy rolled his eyes, "and how would we afforded to pay for this pony, Clarke? I'm a history professor and you're an artist, we aren't exactly rolling in cash."

 

"My mom is, like, filthy rich. Can't we just borrow money from her?" 

 

"I don't want to borrow money from your mom, she won't think I'm providing for you properly." 

 

"Oh my god," Clarke said, sounding exasperated, "fine. No pony."

 

"No pony." Bellamy agreed. "Maybe when she's older we can get a dog."

 

Clarke nodded happily, "I've always wanted a dog."

 

"Me too," Bellamy admitted. 

 

\--

 

Most of their month passed like this, Clarke and Bellamy would trade off taking care of the baby during the day and at night (Octavia was usually glad to help, both during the day and at night, she was really taking to the whole 'Aunt Octavia' role). Once or twice a week, Clarke would come over and they would work on the financial plan for the first twenty two years of Annie's life (including everything from what preschool she would attend to a financial plan for college). Usually she and Bellamy would argue. 

 

They would argue about what car Annie would get for her sixteenth birthday ("Clarke, we cannot afford to buy her a Lamborghini. She's sixteen! I don't even drive a Lamborghini! How rich do you think we are?"), how old she had to be before she could have her first boyfriend ("Well, Octavia has to be out of high school, Clarke, I think that's a good rule." "You're ridiculous, Bellamy."), and what college she could go to ("She has to get really good grades for a scholarship, Harvard is expensive." "She deserves the best education, Bellamy."). 

 

Sometimes it was easy to forget that this was the future of a plastic baby doll that they were deciding. Or at least, it was easy to forget when she was around Bellamy. 

 

When she was around her friends, Clarke was acutely aware just how  _ silly  _ she and Bellamy were being.

 

"Clarke, you do realize you and Bellamy don't actually have a kid, right?" Raven asked during lunch one day as she shoved a French fry into her mouth. 

 

"Of course I do," Clarke said stubborning, a little mad that Raven had cut her off in the middle of one of her stories about how Bellamy had refused to let their child go to boarding school. Clarke had always wanted to go to a boarding school, and she thought that Bellamy would be on board with the whole 'keep-Annie-out-of-public-school' plan. (He wasn't). 

 

"Okay," Raven said slowly, "just making sure."

 

"It's not like you and Wick aren't doing the exact same thing," Clarke added, "we all have the same class."

 

"Playing house?" Raven asked, "no way, we're just filling out that dumb worksheet in class and passing off the damn doll every so often. You and Bellamy act like you're already parents."

 

"That's the point of the assignment," Clarke protested, though her mind was racing. She and Bellamy weren't actually being  _ that  _ weird about the whole project... right? 

 

Her other friends, Monty and Jasper, were watching the exchange with amused expressions on their faces. 

 

"I don't know, Clarke," Monty said with a grin, "you do sound like you're taking it to the extreme." 

 

"I am not," Clarke protested, though she was starting to think that maybe she  _ was _ .

 

Their conversation was interrupted by someone clearing their throat, and Clarke looked up to see Octavia standing behind her. 

 

"Oh, hey, Octavia," Clarke said with a smile. She really liked the younger girl, they had a lot in common. 

 

She could practically feel the wheels in her friend's brain turning, and saw Raven mouth 'is this the sister' to Monty out of the corner of her eye, but Clarke opted to ignore them. 

 

"Do you want to sit down," Clarke offered, gesturing to the round table that she and her friends were sitting at, since Octavia was still awkwardly standing there holding her lunch tray. 

 

Octavia smiled gratefully, sliding onto the bench in between Clarke and Jasper. Jasper looked like he was going to pass out, which Clarke totally understood because the Blake siblings were both unfairly attractive. The power of their genetics was just unreal.

 

"So what are we talking about," Octavia asked with a smirk, making Clarke wonder just  _ how  _ long she had been standing behind her. 

 

"We were just discussing how weird Clarke and your brother are being about this whole baby project thing," Raven said, making Clarke attempt to interrupt her with a frustrated 'Raven!'. 

 

"My favorite topic," Octavia grinned wickedly, "Clarke and my brother. Or rather, how obviously they both like each other and won't do anything about it."

 

"Octavia... I... Um..." Clarke sputtered, trying to rack her brain for something to say. 

 

"You like Bellamy Blake?" Raven asked before bursting into laughter, "oh this is great." Of course this was promptly followed by a "you should totally get on that," making Octavia groan about how this was her brother that they were talking about. 

 

\--

 

Bellamy was a little confused that upon entering the cafeteria he couldn't see his little sister. Usually she was at one of the front tables with her friends, a few seniors who all looked like they could kill anyone in the school with their badassness. While Bellamy wasn't particularly fond of them, he was also proud of O for being considered 'strong' enough to fit in with that crowd as a freshman. 

 

Today, however, she wasn't at the table. The usual crew was there, Lexa, Anya and Lincoln (who Octavia had a huge crush on, but Bellamy tried not to think about that). His sister, however, was nowhere to be found. 

 

Shrugging it off, Bellamy turned and headed toward his usual table where he sat with Miller and Murphy. On his way there, however, he all but stopped in his tracks. He had finally found his sister, she was sitting at  _ Clarke's  _ table. 

 

That would not end well.

 

Trying to ignore every possible embarrassing thing that Octavia could possibly be telling Clarke right now, Bellamy walked across the cafeteria and dropping into his seat. Miller was already sitting there, though Murphy was suspiciously absent. 

 

Miller didn't say anything as Bellamy sat down, not that that was unusual, he just pulled at his beanie. 

 

"What's up," Bellamy asked, before promptly stuffing a handful of fries into his mouth. 

 

"Nothing," Miller said with a shrug, "where's your kid?"

 

Bellamy rolled his eyes, Murphy thought it was weird how detailed he and Clarke had gotten in their paper for home economics class, but Miller took the whole thing in stride. He insisted on being the godfather and even said that Annie was supposed to call him Uncle Miller, to which Bellamy had responded "you know she can't talk, right?" 

 

"It's Clarke's turn today" Bellamy said, "why?"

 

"No reason," Miller said, "but the way you talk about Annie going back and forth is like you're a divorced couple, then the way you and Clarke argue about the financial plan is like you two are an old married couple. It's funny." 

 

"We do  _ not  _ fight like an old married couple," Bellamy protested, even though he knew that he and Clarke  _ did  _ fight like an old married couple. 

 

Miller gave him  _ the look  _ that Bellamy was sure that he had learned from Octavia. Because seriously, sometimes the two of them could be downright frightening. 

 

"Dude, you totally do," Murphy added as he dragged out his chair - making it scrape against the concrete with a loud squeak - before sitting down. 

 

"Whatever," Bellamy said, "like you two have any room to talk. We all have the same project since we're all in the same class."

 

Murphy raised his eyebrow, "dude, no one else has gotten as into the project as you and Clarke."

 

"It's freaky," Miller agreed, always a man of few words.

 

"It's not that weird," Bellamy protested, but he knew it was useless. 

 

\--

 

"Hey, Octavia, can I ask you something?" Clarke said, a little breathless. She was running laps with Octavia around the track, Bellamy was sitting up in the bleachers reading from one of his oh-so-interesting books. Clarke was supposed to be up there with him studying for her upcoming math test,  but running with Octavia sounded like a lot more fun than watching that doll for any longer. But she was seriously regretting that now, because Octavia was freaking  _ fast _ . The other girl had wanted to stay up at the school to run (she was preparing to join the cross country team), which meant that Bellamy (and thus Clarke) had to stay with her before Bellamy could drive them all over to his house.

 

"Sure," Octavia said, slowing her pace so that the two of them could talk comfortably. 

 

"I just, I was curious," Clarke started nervously, "and I wasn't sure if I could bring it up to Bellamy."

 

Octavia raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

 

"Do you guys live alone?" Clarke asked, suddenly feeling that her question was rather nosey, so she rushed to add, "it's just that I never see anybody else when I'm over."

 

For half a second Clarke was afraid that Octavia was going to be offended, but that fear was eased as soon as the other girl started laughing. 

 

"Yeah, it's just the two of us," she said, and added upon seeing a look of confusion across Clarke's face, "our mom died two years ago, and we never knew our dad - if we even have the same one. Bell doesn't like to talk about it, he hates to think that we might only be half siblings. So after our mom died, our aunt got custody. She was barely around anyway, and once Bell turned eighteen she decided she would rather live with her boyfriend and that we were old enough to take care of ourselves. Still pays the bills though."

 

"Wow," Clarke said, digesting the information she had just been metaphorically clobbered over the head with.

 

Octavia just nodded, "so what's your story, princess?" 

 

Clarke knew she was only using Bellamy's nickname to make her blush, so she tried not to be  _ too  _ frustrated by it. 

 

""My dad died when I was thirteen," Clarke answered, "my mom basically turned into an ice queen bitch. Same old, same old."

 

Octavia frowned, but didn't pry. Instead she picked her pace back up until Clarke was forced to sprint to keep up with her. 

 

\--

 

"I can't believe we finished," Bellamy said, studying the stack of paper in front of him. He and Clarke had taken turns typing it up on her laptop so that it looked all official, but Bellamy was mostly amazed at the fact that the paper ended up being almost twenty pages long. It hadn't seemed like they had actually done that much work, mainly because any time he spent with Clarke didn't exactly feel like work.

 

"I know," Clarke groaned, flexing her wrists, "my hands hurt." 

 

Bellamy laughed, leaning back so that his back was resting against the foot of the couch. He and Clarke were currently sat on the floor between the couch and coffee table, so that it was more comfortable to type. 

 

"It's gonna be weird," Clarke continued, "not coming over here all the time." She was frowning, and Bellamy felt a blush creep over his face, did she actually  _ like  _ hanging out at his house with him and his sister?

 

"Who says you have to stop coming over?" Bellamy asked, before his mind could catch up with his tongue. Luckily, Clarke didn't question his obvious eagerness to have her stick around.

 

"Really?" She asked, grinning so bright Bellamy thought he might go blind. 

 

"Sure," Bellamy said, "I know you and O get along well, and besides," he paused, rubbing the back of his neck suddenly self-conscious, "I like having you around."

 

Clarke moved next to him, so that their shoulders were brushing together, and gently laid her head down on his shoulder. Bellamy suddenly became very still, everywhere she was touching him felt like it was on fire.

 

"You know, Bellamy," she said after a few minutes of silence, "you're probably my best friend."

 

Bellamy raised an eyebrow, because Clarke had a  _ lot  _ of friends, he hardly seemed like the obvious choice to be her best friend.

 

"I mean it," she said, as if she could sense his doubt, "I love Raven, but we really only bonded over the whole 'hating Finn thing'. Monty and Jasper are each other's best friend, so I'm not as close to either of them."

 

Bellamy chewed his lip, thinking about what she had said. Stretching, so that he could wrap one arm around Clarke and pull her closer to his side, he felt a stupid smile plant itself on his face, "I think you're my best friend, too, princess." 

 

\--

 

They ended up getting an A on the project, not that Clarke was surprised. They had obviously worked harder than everyone else in the class combined. 

 

It had, however, been bittersweet to hand the baby doll back in. As much as Clarke hated to admit it, she had grown quite attached to Annie. Though, she knew that neither she nor Bellamy would complain about finally getting to sleep through the night again. 

 

"It feels weird," Clarke leaned over to whisper to Bellamy (she and Murphy had officially traded seats, which Murphy grumbled about, but whatever). 

 

Bellamy had a tiny grin playing on the corner of his mouth, but he nodded, "we just lost custody of our child," he joked. 

 

Clarke nodded solemnly. She saw Raven turn around in her seat and raise her eyebrows out of the corner of her eye, but Clarke ignored her. She knew Raven, and she knew what Raven was implying by that pointed look. It was stupid, anyway, since she didn't even like Bellamy like  _ that _ .

 

Yes, objectively, he was attractive. His brown eyes always sparkled with warmth, and his freckles were kind of beautiful. Sure, he laughed at all her jokes (even though her friends swore she wasn't funny), and she liked that he was actually a giant nerd who would spend hours talking about ancient history. He also, however, was persistent in getting under her skin, hardly agreed with her on anything, and still insisted on calling her by that ridiculous nickname. 

 

Though if Clarke was being honest, the nickname didn't really bother her anymore. Somewhere along the lines it had become less of an insult and more of a pet name, like 'honey' or 'sweetie' or  _ holy fuck Bellamy Blake actually liked her _ . And she  _ maybe _ actually had a tiny crush on him. She couldn't believe that all of her friends had seen it before she had. (Though if Clarke Griffin was anything, it was Queen of Denial. Or at least that's what Raven always told her). 

 

Oh, she was totally screwed.

 

She announced as much as she sat down at lunch that day, dropping into her (now) usual seat between Octavia and Monty. Raven, who was sitting across from her, raised an eyebrow.

 

"Did you forget your science homework, too?" Jasper asked, sounding too excited about missing homework, "can we do it together?"

 

"No I didn't forget my homework," Clarke said, though she did pull out her paper to let Jasper copy down the answers. 

 

"Then what's wrong?" Monty asked, sounding concerned. 

 

Neither Raven nor Octavia said anything, but they way they were watching her made Clarke sure that they already knew what she was going to say.

 

"I like Bellamy," Clarke admitted, before dropping her head to the table. "I'm screwed."

 

"Hopefully," Raven said with a laugh, making everyone else at the table groan - except for Octavia who practically yelled "gross!" 

 

Clarke lifted her head back up off the table to glare at Raven. "I'm having a crisis here."

 

"Why are you having a crisis?" Octavia asked, "he likes you too, why don't you just go for it?" 

 

"How do you know he likes me? Has he told you?" Clarke asked, studying her newest friend.

 

"Not exactly," Octavia said, "but he's my brother and I know, okay? He's always talking about you with this lovesick look in his eye, if I wasn't so happy for him, I would be disgusted."

 

Clarke felt a blush creeping over her face. "I'm pretty sure he doesn't look at me with a lovesick look in his eye," she protested, however much she wanted it to be true. It wouldn't do well to get her hopes up, only to realize that he didn't like her back. 

 

"He does," Raven agreed, "he's worse than Wick." 

 

"Aw you two finally admitted your undying love for each other?" Clarke teased, half hoping to divert the conversation away from her mess of a love life. 

 

Raven rolled her eyes, "Nice try, Griffin." 

 

Clarke just shrugged before shoving a carrot into her mouth, "if you can tease me, then I can tease you."

 

"You started this conversation!"

 

\--

 

"You know," Octavia said, drawing Bellamy out of his thoughts, "you should sit with us at lunch."

 

"What?" Bellamy snapped his head up to look at his sister. Octavia was standing in the kitchen, pouring macaroni into a pot on the stove. 

 

"You and Miller and Murphy always sit alone like losers, okay? You need more friends. Plus, I don't think Clarke would mind." Octavia continued casually, too casually.

 

"What are you plotting?" he asked pointy, if he knew his sister (and he did) then she was definitely up to something. 

 

"I really think that Miller would like Clarke's friend Monty, okay? He's, like, exactly his type."

 

Bellamy groaned, but he knew that he and his friends would end up sitting at the lunch table anyway. Because this was Octavia, and O got anything she wanted. Besides, if he got to sit with Clarke at lunch, well, he wasn't going to complain. 

 

"Okay," Bellamy agreed, "I'll let you play matchmaker."

 

Octavia grinned wickedly, and Bellamy regretted giving in so easily. 

 

\--

 

Clarke almost dropped her lunch tray when she saw who was sitting by her table. Raven, who was walking next to her, just started laughing... traitor. Bellamy Blake was sitting in what was usually her seat (in between Monty and Octavia, although Miller was sitting between Monty and Bell). Even Murphy was sitting at the table, though he was slouched next to Jasper, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else.

 

Octavia looked over and caught sight of them, grinning widely, "hey, guys," she called with a wave. The rest of the table looked over, Jasper with pleading eyes, Miller and Monty like they were bored, Murphy like he'd rather kill them then sit with them at lunch, and Bellamy with an annoying smirk that was  _ definitely  _ not attractive. 

 

Clarke forced herself to smile, because she was really glad to see Bellamy, really, she just wasn't sure how to act around him now that she knew she liked him.  _ And that he probably liked her  _ whispered her subconscious, which she ignored. "Hey, guys," she said cheerfully, sitting carefully in the large opening between Murphy and Monty (though she sat closer to Monty, which Raven gave her a glare about as she sat down between Clarke and Murphy). 

 

"Hey," the group said, with various degrees of enthusiasm.

 

"Hey," Bellamy said softly, a few seconds after everybody else. Clarke felt her cheeks grow red with a faint blush. 

 

"I hope you don't mind that I asked the guys to sit with us," O was saying, but Clarke had no doubt that this was her friend meddling.

 

"It's fine," Clarke assured her, though Jasper still looked like he maybe wanted to puke from Murphy's presence. Not that Clarke would blame him, Murphy was an ass.  

 

The rest of the lunch passed with slightly awkward conversations (though by the end of the period, Raven and Clarke had a bet going on how long it would take Miller and Monty to get together). Bellamy insisted on walking Clarke to her next class, making Jasper wink at Clarke as she walked away.

 

"Sorry we invaded your lunch table," Bellamy said, as they headed toward the Chemistry room. 

 

"It's fine," Clarke replied, because it really was. She wouldn't mind seeing more of Bellamy. She had spent most of lunch drinking in how cute his freckles looked in the sunlight.

 

Bellamy grinned at her, making her heart skip a beat, "okay, cool, I'll um, see you later?"

 

"See you later," Clarke agreed, pausing in the doorway into the Chem room. Then, on an impulse, Clarke darted up and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. She darted into the classroom before she could see his reaction, but if she had seen him, she would have seen him standing there like an idiot, with one hand pressed to his cheek.

 

\--

 

Bellamy slumped against the side of his car, waiting for Octavia to meet him in the parking lot after school. Earlier in the day Clarke had kissed his cheek after he walked her to class, and he honestly didn’t know how to feel about that. That  _ had  _ to mean that she liked him…. Right? What else could it mean? He had been thinking about it all day, had been thinking about how it would actually feel to kiss her.

 

He was drawn out from his thoughts by O joining him at the car. “Hey,” she greeted, throwing the passenger seat door open. “Wha’ya thinking about?”

 

Bellany blinked and shook his head, “Nothing,” he said as he climbed into the car.

 

Octavia grinned wickedly at him, “oh, so you mean Clarke.”

 

Bellamy glared at her, “that is definitely  _ not  _ what I was thinking about.”

 

“Sure,” Octavia agreed sarcastically.

 

“But if I was thinking about it,” Bellamy said, turning to look at his sister, “what do you know?”

 

Octavia held her hands up in mock surrender, “oh no, I am  _ so  _ not getting involved.”

 

“So she likes me?” Bellamy asked, “because if you knew that she didn’t you would tell me because you wouldn’t want your precious big brother to get hurt?”

 

Octavia rolled her eyes at him, “You’re so melodramatic Bell, maybe I don’t know anything.”

 

Bellamy gave her the best version of  _ the look  _ that he could, but Octavia wasn’t affected. “Seriously, O, you’re not going to give me anything?”

 

Octavia grinned wickedly at him, “Just ask her out Big Bro.”

 

\--

 

Clarke paced back and forth across her room. Oh god, she hadn’t seen Bellamy after she kissed his cheek. Seriously why did she think that was a good idea? Now everything was probably going to be  _ super  _ awkward the next time she saw him. She had her car keys in her hands, and a large part of her wanted to drive over to Bellamy’s house right now. She wasn’t sure if it was to see if Bellamy would still act totally normal or if he would act different. She wasn’t sure which outcome was the one she was hoping for.

 

“Okay,” she whispered to herself, “I can do this.”

 

It wasn’t a long drive to Bellamy’s house, but the car ride was long enough for Clarke to totally psych herself out. This was probably going to end horribly and Bellamy was going to hate her and not want to be friends with her anymore. She had so much to  _ lose _ .

 

Clarke shook her head, climbing out of her car and walking up to Bellamy’s front door. She  _ had _ to do this. She  _ had  _ to find out how he felt. 

 

She raised her hand to knock, but the door was already opening. They must have heard her car pull in. Then Bellamy was standing in front of her, his hands in his pockets.

 

“Hey, Clarke,” He greeted, “What are you -” 

 

Clarke stepped forward, reaching up so her arms were wrapped around his neck. She had to stand on her tiptoes to press her lips to his, effectively cutting off the question he was in the process of asking.  

 

His lips were stiff under hers for a second in surprise, and then he relaxed, his hands coming to wrap around her waist. She could feel electricity coursing through her veins, could feel his hair as she twisted it between her fingers. 

 

When she finally (reluctantly) pulled away, they were both breathless. “Hey, Clarke,” Bellamy said, tipping his head down so that their noses touched.

 

“Yes?” She breathed softly, staring into his beautiful brown eyes.

 

“I think I’m a little in love with you.”

 

“Hey, Bellamy.”

 

“Yeah?”

  
“I think I’m a little in love with you too.” 


End file.
